Creative Time: A Weekend of Serious Art and Serious Parties

Singer-Songwriter Glasser will be performing lullabies at midnight during Creative Time Fall Ball Extravaganza.  Image courtesy of Creative Time  

Imagine a carnival, such as those from your childhood along boardwalks, except that this one is at one of the most coveted creative venues in Manhattan, and instead of games like Ring the Bell and Cross Bow Target Shoot, a lineup of superstar contemporary artists would be the game operators. That's exactly what Creative Time has in store for this Friday and Saturday at Neuehouse, in a ball they have aptly entitled "Get in Bed with Creative Time, a Spectacle in 2 Acts."

The party will start at 8 pm with a first act denominated "The Sleepover" that will run until 8 am on Saturday. This is where we will experience an extravaganza that includes over-the-top manicures with Rob Pruitt , Will Cotton and Vanity Projects, Marco Brambilla's twisted video and yoga with Robert Lazzarini, among many other happenings with several renowned artist. The second act will run on Saturday starting at 8 pm - a dance bacchanal with interactive art experiences where great artists like Matt Jones and Kadar Brock will engage the audiences in ways they haven't done before. 

Besides truly admiring the phenomenal projects that Creative Time has propelled forward, including my favorite public art installation of 2014, Kara Walker's mind-blowing sphinx at Domino Sugar Factory, I'm amazed at the amount of originality that was put together into developing the concept for this party. 

While having a conversation with two of the incredible people who run Creative Time, Anne Pasternack, President and Artistic Director, and Alyssa Nitchun, Director of Development, I could feel how passionate they are about everything they do when they said in unison: "We take our art very seriously, but we also take our parties very seriously." They don't want to throw a boring party. Ever. And they want to mimic the immersive experience that their installations offer to millions of people in the US and around the world.

There's so much more happening at Creative Time, including the annual Summit, which just happened in Stockholm  in collaboration with the Public Art Agency and aims to provide much bigger, global platforms for projects that marry the aesthetic and conceptual vision of top contemporary artists with larger-scale political and socio-economic issues. For that alone, Creative Time deserves all the support it can get. But their projects keep getting much more ambitious and what they will be announcing for 2015 will certainly make art and non-art enthusiasts want to be a part of it.

I'm honored to have been invited to host this party along an extraordinary group of people. It will be memorable. To buy tickets online click here.